The 6 best cities for street food

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The INSIDER Summary:

• Street food is the best way to immerse yourself in a destination.
• Rio has Nutella-filled tapioca crêpes, Sydney has beachfront burgers, and Cartagena serves up chicharron-topped bollos. 

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You haven't experienced New York City 'til you've wolfed down a curbside hot dog doused in ketchup, mustard, and relish. Similarly, a trip to Bangkok isn't complete without slurping a bowl of spicy boat noodles, dished out by a hawker on Boat Noodle Alley. Street food isn't just a fast, cheap, and delicious way to fill your stomach—it's a way of truly experiencing and immersing yourself in a destination.

Though almost every city in the world offers its own unique kind of street food, a handful of cities simply take it to the next level. We're talking about the kind of deliciousness you feel at your core with each bite—the feeling you get when tucking into a soulful Moroccan tagine, for example, or a freshly made banh mi—and with so many available options that you could go an entire trip without ever setting foot inside a restaurant.

Classic street food cities like New York and Singapore immediately come to mind, with their established street food culture and centralized hawker and food truck areas. But then there are those under-the-radar foodie cities that are slowly becoming the world's next street food capitals: Rio with its Nutella-filled tapioca crêpes, Sydney with its beachfront burgers, and Cartagena with its chicharron-topped bollos. Who needs Michelin stars when you have street eats this good?

Here, we've put together a list of where to find the world's most delicious street food, with insider tips on where to eat, what to order, and what to avoid.

Singapore

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The Scene: Singapore is one of the safest street food cities in the world thanks to strictly enforced regulations and centralized hawker areas—so don’t be afraid to experiment. Added bonus: stalls are required to display cleanliness grades (“A”-“D”), so you know exactly which ones to avoid.

Where to Go: Maxwell Food Center, a stone’s throw away from Chinatown, is one of Singapore’s most popular hawker centers—here you’ll find long queues for Hainanese chicken rice and congee. The nearby Hong Lim Food Centre is great for spicy, delicious laksa and seafood-based noodle dishes. For something a little different, head over to Lagoon Food Village, which sits right by the beach and boasts an entire row of satay stalls. 

What to Order: Hainanese chicken rice; bak chor mee (pork noodles); sup tulang (bone marrow soup); min chiang kueh(peanut pancake).

Sydney

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The Scene: Whether it’s Vietnamese banh mi or Wagyu beef burgers you’re after, Sydney’s diverse food scene has you covered. Variety aside, the city’s street stalls and food trucks are some the world’s cleanest thanks to the city’s strict food safety guidelines and regular cleanliness inspections, so the biggest danger here is that you’ll eat too much.

Where to Go: Unlike Singapore’s hawker centers, Sydney’s food trucks are scattered all across the city and are constantly moving. The best way to keep track of them? Download the city’s Sydney Food Trucks app, which tells you exactly which trucks are where.

Insider tip: if you’re looking for ramen or pho, Hyde Park’s Night Noodle Markets every October are worth the trek; any other time of year, you’ll find the best Asian street food at Cabramatta or Marrickville, in Sydney’s Western suburbs.

What to Order: Fatboy burger and truffle fries at Mister Gee Burger Truck; gnocchi with lamb ragu at Urban Pasta food truck; banh mi at Marrickville Pork Roll.

Istanbul

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The Scene: Street food in Istanbul is a way of life—you can barely turn a corner without coming across a street vendor or büfe (a deli-like shop where you can grab a sandwich, hot dog, and a cold beer on-the-go). The city’s streets are a goldmine of culinary variety; you’ll find everything from bagels (simit) to Turkish pizza (lahmacun). Though eating on the streets is generally very safe, err on the safe side and try to stick with cooked foods and away from raw meats and seafood. 

Where to Go: Street vendors can be found on almost every block in Istanbul, but you can’t go wrong perusing the stalls around the Spice Market in Eminönü and Küçük Pazar. The Istanbul Eats blog offers updated commentary on where to find the city’s best street eats.

What to Order: Lahmacun (Turkish-style pizza covered in ground meat, onions and spices), mısır (grilled corn on the cob); kokoreç (lamb intestines wrapped around skewered sweetbreads and grilled over charcoal); börek (flaky pastry often with vegetable or cheese filling).

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